Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes written and illustrated by Jonathan Horning. Published by Walker and Company as part of their Wooden Books series
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In the introduction to Simple Shelters, Jonathan Horning writes: “All the ancient shelters featured in this little book evolved as functional responses to local climate, the availability of materials and temporal requirements; nomadic, seasonal or settled. Some are designed to be carried around, others to stand for years. Almost all fade back into the landscape with little or no damage or waste.” Simple Shelters is a history book, a how-to reference and a global survey of forms.
A simple shelter is one that is easy to build. This is a book about smart and minimal building. Horning shows us that the solutions are highly engineered and startlingly elegant, making the most out of local materials. From tents and tipis to huts and hogans; there are lessons here for every level to learn.
Jonathan Horning has taught geometry and workshop skills at the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London for over 15 years. Also an experienced carpenter and joiner, he lives in Devon, UK, with his wife and children.
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A completed, adobe-covered Hogan. Hogans are ascribed to the Navajo people, who live in an arid, hot environment. There is much spiritual significance in the spatial orientation of the Hogan itself, as well as for the dwellers within it. Women always sit on the north side while the men sit to the south. Movement within the Hogan is always performed in a clockwise direction encircling the hearth. Similarly the construction of a Hogan is always performed using specific system corresponding to the compass.
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A depiction of basic bender frames, made from either thin wood saplings or reed mats and indigenous to regions of America, Asia, Africa and Lapland.
Clockwise from top: centered, vertical sided-worzel centered, square parallel and triangular parallel frames.
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Top: Early Yugachi cabin from Siberia with a "flat" roof, using wet earth to fill the gaps between logs
Bottom: Log cabin with triangular gable wall Roof pitch is determined by the number of gable-wall logs. A flatter roof could have as few as 2-3 logs whereas a steep roof could have a full story of gable-wall logs.
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